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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

I've been trying to compile the 2.6 kernel for over a week now and have hit a proverbial brick wall. My system is using a RAID-1 (mirrored) array on a Highpoint 372 controller and no matter what kernel parameters I set in "make xconfig" I get the same error message when trying to boot the new kernel i.e.

make mrproper
Copy the .config file from the Slackware CDs ataraid.i kernel directory to /usr/src/linux-2.6.0 (I installed using the ataraid.i kernel)
make xconfig
Make sure that the HPT36x/37x chipset support and reiserfs file systems are compiled into the kernel (not loadable modules).
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

Then reboot..... When I try using the new kernel I get the VFS kernel panic. (thankfully the backup still works !)

With the exception of the "make mrproper" step I have tried running "make xconfig" again many. many times to try to spot what is missing/wrong but it all looks reasonable to me (but then again I'm new to this so know practically nothing)

I should also mention that I edited my /etc/lilo.conf file so that the end section looks like this:

I have also updated the /usr/src/linux symlink to point to the 2.6 kernel source folder and can confirm that when the working 2.4.22 kernel boots it addresses my ATA RAID arrays partitions as device(114,1), device (114,2) etc. etc.

Well thankyou rotvogel for pointing this out (I suppose I really should have found this myself though)

But it does seem strange to me that ATA RAID is fully functional in the 2.4.22 kernel but then it's not working again in the 2.6 kernel ? I would have expected that ATA RAID would be used quite a lot in small business/home servers so it's current non functionality is a bit puzzling....

Oh well I suppose I'll just have to keep using my current 2.4.22 kernel (ataraid.i image from the Slackware CD) and keep my eyes peeled for the return of ATA RAID support.

It's time like this I wish I was fluent in C programming so I could join in and help myself ! Looks like that's something to do this year.